Gardening This Weekend October 15, 2026
Tonight and tomorrow are going to find cooler weather rolling south across Texas. It gives us a reminder that winter isn’t too far away. Here are the things you’ll want to be doing to get preparations underway.
PLANT
• Pansies, violas, snapdragons, pinks, ornamental cabbage and kale. We’ve been waiting for cooler weather and now it’s arriving. Planted now, these winter annuals will be colorful well into spring.
• Finish digging and dividing spring-flowering perennials. This is just about your last call for these. They need time to establish strong roots before the soils cool.
• Take cuttings of tropicals and special annual varieties you want to keep over the winter. Be picky, however. Space indoors is limited. If you can just as easily buy the same plants in the spring, you’ll be better off doing so.
• Daffodils and grape hyacinths can be planted as soon as you buy them. • Buy premium tulip and Dutch hyacinth bulbs now. However, to bloom properly, these bulbs will need artificial “pre-chilling” for 45 or more days at 45 degrees in the refrigerator. Plant in mid-December.
PRUNE
• Continue mowing lawn at recommended height. Collect and shred fallen tree leaves in the process and put them into compost or use them as mulch. Do not allow them to mat down on top of the grass or they will add to the threat of turf fungal diseases.
• Do tidy-up pruning of shrubs, but save major reshaping for late winter, after danger of extreme cold has passed.
• Remove dead or damaged branches from trees while you can still distinguish them from healthy limbs.
• Remove erratic growth and reshape patio pots and hanging baskets before bringing them into the house or greenhouse for winter.
FERTILIZE
• New annual color plants with a high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food every couple of weeks to get them off to a quick start.
• Ryegrass and fescue with high-nitrogen lawn food, probably at half the rate recommended on the bag for warm-season turf. Both grow during cool weather and will utilize the nutrients efficiently.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• If you have an area where you will be planting groundcover, vegetables or flowers next spring, and if you want to get rid of the existing grass, spray it now with a glyphosate-only weedkiller. Give it 10 days to kill the tops and roots of the grass and you will be able to start rototilling the soil. Glyphosate products leave no residue. That will permit you to start incorporating the shredded tree leaves into the garden so they can compost over the winter
• Brown patch is showing up in St. Augustine turf. It causes very regular round 18- to 24-in. patches of dead leaf blades. The blades will pull loose easily from the runners. Apply a labeled turf fungicide to stop further spread. The fungus doesn’t kill the grass, but it weakens it unnecessarily.
• Watch houseplants and patio pots for insects that need to be controlled before you bring the plants indoors for the winter.
• Measure beds where you’ll have cold-sensitive plantings this winter, then buy the necessary frost cloths to protect those spaces. Store them where you can quickly access them if a cold front heads toward our state.